LWL #Interview – Anna M. Taylor

Hey, romance addicts! I am excited to have author Anna M. Taylor on my blog this week. Anna is a gothic romance and women’s fiction writer. She is a retired United Church of Christ and Presbyterian Church USA minister and has been writing seriously since joining Romance Writers of America in 2003.

Anna’s first published work appeared in 2008 under her inspirational romance pen name, Anna Taylor. She published her first erotic romance in 2016 with The Wild Rose Press as Michal Scott.

Anna shares her experience and motivation as an author, common pitfalls writers fall into and her favorite trope.

What are common traps for aspiring writers?
Comparing themselves to other authors. Our journeys are unique and therefore we should focus our energies on what we are bringing to the literary world’s table, not what’s already there that we wished we had brought first.

What was the best money you ever spent as a writer?
The best money I’ve spent as a writer has been on Mary Buckham’s Power Plotting Course, her book Break Into Fiction and subscribing to her monthly Wednesday Writing webinars. It was from Mary that learned how to structure a successful novel. I’ve been using her templates for over ten years now and they’ve never failed to help me when I’m stuck.

Do you have another profession besides being a writer? If so, what is it, and how does it contribute to your writing?
I’m a minister. All of my romance stories no matter the subgenre deal with second chances. I know that’s because my religion at its core is about reconciliation and rediscovering love.

Do you Google yourself?
Oddly enough I have in connection with my ministerial work, but since I’ve been working more as an author, it has never occurred to me. I must check myself out.

Does your family support your career as a writer?
Most definitely. My husband continually rubs his hands together and gleefully looks forward to Hollywood to come calling. My mom and sister brag on me all the time and tell people where they can find my books. My sister even had a paperback copy of my first published work on display in her china cabinet.

Thanks so much, Anna! Okay, romance addicts. Anna will release A Little in Love with Death, the second book in her supernatural romance series Haunted Harlem, on October 31st—just in time for some Halloween apparitions and desire. Click here to grab a copy of book one.

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A Little in Love with Death
By Anna M. Taylor
$2.99, Kindle
African American Romance

No one—not even the man who said he loved her—believed Sankofa Lawford’s story of being attacked by a ghost.

Ten years later a new, ghostly assault brings her back home to a mother going mad, a brother dangling at his wits’ end and a former love wanting a second chance. She’s at a loss of what to do because the pain created by memories of her own attack proves stronger than her desire to heal her family and find love again.

Mitchell Emerson believes science and reason can account for the ghostly happenings at Umoja House. He searches for a rational explanation that will prove him right and regain Sankofa’s trust and love. What he learns leaves him shattered.

Now reluctant allies, Mitchell and Sankofa uncover years of lies that threaten to pull them apart until help comes from an unexpected ally, the ghost itself.

Follow Anna

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